Terrible Efficiency: what would you do?

[jonathanchapman1]

Brewed a gumballhead clone today. Was shooting for 1.050 or so and ended up with awful efficiency, only got 1.040. Seeing as I have 60 IBUs in there, should I just let this sucker ferment out and have a rather intensely bitter session wheat? Or would you add some honey or sugar or dme or something else to boost the gravity? She is already fermenting away. I don't really care about accurately cloning, I just want a tasty and drinkable beer!

 

[aiptasia]

Since it's already fermenting, let it ride.

 

[W0rthog]

What was the wort temp when you took the gravity reading?

 

[jonathanchapman1]

72. Used a refractometer and double checked with a hydrometer. This was after shaking up the fermenter to aerate, so I don't think it was a case of the wort not being mixed been brewing all grain for 2 years usually have efficiency between 60 and 70%. Time to start really figuring out to be one of those 80+% people

 

[wilserbrewer]

Letting it ride is the easiest...but a lb of DME or LME heated to say 200 degrees in a couple pints of pre boiled water would boost gravity.

Your beer will likely be a bit unbalanced, but if you like hops, could still be enjoyable, and with age the hops will mellow some.

Sugar or honey will further dry the beer and will not add body, not advisable IMHO.

How is your crush?

 

[Pratzie]

Was gonna recommend adding some DME as well.

Next would be to check the crush of ur grain. How is ur MLT at holding temps? And what kind of setup are u using (false bottom, manifold, bazooka screen)?

Biermuncher had a thread about extending mash times to 90 minutes to helping attentuation as well. Lemme see if I can find it.

Edit: Link added.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/controlling-attenuation-through-mash-times-60576/

 

[jonathanchapman1]

Thanks for the advice and links everyone! I plan on picking up a pound of wheat DME tomorrow (LHBS is closed on Sunday). How long do I need to boil/heat at 200 before cooling and adding? And am I correct that, assuming I have 4.5 gallons now, that wheat DME will add 43 gravity points per gallon so my 1.040 will go to 1.0495? Maybe a little less when accounting for the water used to hydrate the DME?

I had my grains crushed at the LHBS; the crush on barley looks like what i see picture of online of "good crush". Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with what wheat should look like. My next major purchase will be a mill so I can control this myself.

I am using a bazooka screen and batch sparging. If I switched to a false bottom and fly sparging, how much improvement in efficiency could I expect?

My temps are holding well in my MLT; I lose maybe 5 degrees over 60 mins. I'm using an igloo cooler wrapped in sleeping bags. I will try adding another 30 mins to my mashes going forward as well.

 

[Cider123]

How confident are you with the accuracy of your thermometer?

Have you tested it at boiling or some other control?

 

[jonathanchapman1]

I actually haven't tested it since I bought it... That is a really good point... Will test at freezing and boiling before my next brew!

 

[jonathanchapman1]

Found another thread that confirms, you add about 9 gravity points per pound of DME, assuming a 5 gallon batch.

It also confirmed to add as little water as possible, boil the water first to drive off air, then sanitize the DME for 5-10 minutes.

Just adding the details here in case anyone else stumbles across this thread and it provides useful. Adding my pound of wheat DME tonight!

 

[jonathanchapman1]

Just a follow up. Added my 1lb of DME. That brought my OG up to 1.049. Checked my FG tonight, a week later, and it is at 1.010; dang that is some intense attenuation! Will dry hop this weekend with Mosaic.

 

[EarlyAmateurZymurgist]

Found another thread that confirms, you add about 9 gravity points per pound of DME, assuming a 5 gallon batch.

That's correct. There are approximately 46 gravity points in a pound of DME.

 

[brewkinger]

+1 on getting your own mill.

Wheat can be a bit tough to mill, especially at LHBS.
The grains are smaller and many go through uncrushed. I usually double mill and on a couple of occasions have even tightened up the gap on the second pass.